By Colin Michie
Almonds are a badge of luxury, prosperity – their creamy, nutty flavours and crunchiness have been treasured for millennia. As sugar-coated dragées gifted at weddings, they are messengers of hope, fertility and good fortune in many cultures. They are the world’s most popular tree nut, with a global market of many billions.
Almonds create delectable magic in kitchens and bars. In marzipan, they enrobe and transform the dark fruits of a Christmas cake, stollen or galette – heavenly treats. Frangipane or almond custard is a pastry chef’s poster cherub. Calissons in Provence, Bakewell tart in England, sacchertorte in Austria – almond’s scrumptious list extends everywhere!
Italians bake them into amaretti, cantuccini, or mix them into little meringues to make ‘brutti ma buoni’ (ugly but good) biscuits. We cannot forget mouth-watering desserts such as tiramisu or turron nougat. They are cooked in Byzantine breads, salads, and pastas or alongside fish, meats, and vegetarian dishes. They are added to breakfast cereals, enhance pancake mixes, whipped cream or chocolates.
Down in the bar, almonds are great for mixologists. Combined with barley, orange, rose water, ginger, lime or spices, they infuse orgeat or falernum. Used in a Mai Tai, amaretto sour, French connection or a Godfather, almond flavours make an unrivalled, hedonic cocktail choir!
The taste of almonds comes from taste buds, their scents and the “mouth feel” of their textures. As infants, we have approximately 30,000 taste buds, but this number falls steadily – those over 60 may have only 2000 functioning receptors to detect all those flavours, including sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Scent is more powerful and has many more nerve sensors, but it too diminishes with age (and smoking). So younger folk have more powerful sensations delivered by these nuts.
The scent of almonds comes mostly from benzaldehyde, also found in other plants, including the stones of cherries, peaches and apricots. Historically, such fruit pits were powdered to make almond essences or syrups in North Africa. Synthetic benzaldehyde today perfumes soaps, cosmetics, food and drinks.
Almonds are particularly nutritious, with high protein, fat and fibre levels. They contain iron, phosphorous, manganese, calcium, and particularly high levels of vitamin E as well as some B12. Recent studies of large numbers of consumers suggest they help improve blood lipids. Almond milk is popular – it has no lactose or cholesterol. Almonds are antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, reducing risks from several chronic diseases, supporting your skin from the inside out.
Almond oils have external cosmetic powers, too, helping hair and skin glow, promoting healing and slowing scar formation. Traditionally, this oil was recommended for dry skin, following a burn, surgery or eczema. Almonds provide a plant protein source with small carbon footprints, although a high water requirement. Crucially all their richness depends on an insect: The bee.
Because over 80% of almonds are grown in California, fertilising their trees has become the world’s largest managed pollination event. Over a million hives, each with up to 40,000 bees, are moved so as to fertilise flowering almond trees each spring. Recently, butterflies have been bred to improve pollination, too, but they are not as transportable and require other food sources during the year in the almond groves.
As with many foods, almonds may be a challenge. Nuts contain high levels of oxalates, used by almond trees as protection against fungal and other infections. Oxalates are found in other plant products, such as soy, spinach, beets, chocolate and dates: These can all contribute to creating stones in the kidney. So a large daily almond consumption may be hazardous, depending on your diet or your risk of these problems. Consuming them in moderation and staying hydrated makes them safe!
For some, almonds have a more immediate, greater risk as they may cause allergies. If so, they should be avoided. Food allergies, including to tree nuts, are increasingly troublesome, although less frequent than those to peanuts.
Agatha Christie taught in her novels that a scent of almonds on a murder victim suggested they had been poisoned with cyanide. Cyanide injures mitochondria, blocking energy supplies inside cells – it can kill within minutes. Sweet almonds contain very little cyanide; bitter almonds have it removed before marketing. Other food plants can yield cyanide, too. For instance, konzo is a damaging toxic condition caused by the cyanide in cassava in Mozambique. Cyanide is often released during incomplete burning. It is measurable, for instance, at low levels in those smoking tobacco. It can be lethally high following smoke inhalation injuries.
Eating these extraordinary nuts, almonds, or using their oil to massage an infant shares the promises and very real blessings of nature for our health and beauty during this festive season. Celebrate the bees and butterflies, too, for their industry throughout history has provided us with these opportunities.
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